Alcohol minimum pricing a ‘victory’
CONSUMER: A landmark decision which will see Scotland become the first country in the world to introduce minimum pricing for units of alcohol has been heralded as a “massive victory” for health and democracy.
A LANDMARK decision which will see Scotland become the first country in the world to introduce minimum pricing for units of alcohol has been heralded as a “massive victory” for health and democracy.
Supreme Court justices gave their backing to the controversial measure in what Ministers in Edinburgh hailed as an “historic and far-reaching judgment”.
Seven justices at the UK’s highest court dismissed a legal challenge that had been brought against minimum unit pricing by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA). The decision clears the way for the Scottish Government to bring in the policy more than five years after MSPs passed legislation for it.
Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “This is a historic and far-reaching judgment and a landmark moment in our ambition to turn around Scotland’s troubled relationship with alcohol. In a ruling of global significance, the UK Supreme Court has unanimously backed our pioneering and life-saving alcohol pricing policy.
“This has been a long journey and in the five years since the Act was passed, alcohol-related deaths in Scotland have increased. With alcohol available for sale at just 18 pence a unit, that death toll remains unacceptably high.
“Given the clear and proven link between consumption and harm, minimum pricing is the most effective and efficient way to tackle the cheap, high strength alcohol that causes so much damage to so many families.”
She said the Scottish Government would now proceed with plans to bring in minimum unit pricing “as quickly as possible”.
The SWA had brought a legal challenge to the legislation after it was passed, taking the case to the highest court in Scotland and the European Court of Justice, before it ended up at the UK’s highest court.
In the case the Supreme Court had to decide whether the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 was incompatible with European Union law.
During a hearing in July, the judges heard argument from the organisation that minimum unit pricing (MUP) is “disproportionate” and illegal under European rules. The SWA said there were better ways to achieve the Scottish Government’s proposed 50p per unit minimum pricing plan.
But the Supreme Court unanimously ruled there was no breach of European Union law and that minimum pricing “is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. Afterwards the SWA said it accepted the ruling.
After the ruling, Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “Today’s decision is a massive victory for Scotland’s health and for our democracy. Minimum unit pricing will save the lives of hundreds of Scots and improve the lives of thousands more.”
Scottish Ministers have prepared a draft order specifying a minimum price per unit of 50p, but neither the 2012 Act nor the order have been brought into force because of the legal proceedings.
A small number of countries, including Canada and Russia, and some states in the USA, have a form of minimum pricing, but Scotland will be the first nation to introduce minimum unit pricing.
It comes after figures showed there were 1,265 alcohol related deaths in Scotland in 2016 – a rise of 10 per cent on the previous year. Research by the University of Sheffield has suggested a 50p minimum unit price could result in 121 fewer deaths a year after 20 years, while hospital admissions could fall by more than 2,000 a year by then.
This is a historic and far-reaching judgment. Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison.